dgranger, you are right that the latter part of my statement reinforces your point. However, the wording of this poll suggestion is ambiguous and could also refer to movies that were awarded the Oscar in the 21st century.

Yep it's tricky when you think about it, Casablanca is a 1942 film, but it was the Best Picture of 1943 which means that it was awarded in 1944, 2 years is no big deal but in the scale of World War II, two years is like an eternity.

None of them are undeserving of the award, since the award only tracks the "best" of a given year, and in some years, every eligible movie leaves much to be desired, meaning that the best will also leave much to be desired. Now, with that in mind, maybe the focus of the poll should be on which winners should not have been nominated in the first place, maybe.

My vote would go for The Departed, and Scorsese is one of my favorite directors, but come on, let's call a spade a spade, it was a sympathy vote, nothing else. the film deserved a few nods for writing, editing, and maybe the Supporting acting, but as far as the thriller genre goes, it was no more transcendental than say a film like 1993 In the Line of Fire (which got these three Oscar nods, by the way and was much better) or even a classic like Lethal Weapon.

I look at the other nominees of 2006, and I see more deserving titles like Babel, Little Miss Sunshine or Letters from Iwo Jima, hell, I even see better and more daring pictures outside the Best Picture circle: Apocalypto, The Perfume, Pan's Labyrinth, Stranger Than Fiction, Lives of Others, Children of Men... even Borat was more enjoyable.

My vote would go to Slumdog Millonaire, I do not say that I do not like it, Danny Boyle is a director whose films are almost always to my liking, but my favorite that year was Gran Torino and another great movie that Eastwood did the same year; Changeling

I think several of these pictures should not have won the Oscar, and in some cases I think they should not even be nominated:

Green Book - should not been nominatedThe Shape of Water - should not have wonArgo - should not been nominatedThe Artist - should not have wonThe King's Speech - should not have wonThe Hurt Locker - should not have wonCrash - should not been nominatedChicago - should not have wonA Beautiful Mind - should not have won

In the case of Slumdog Millionaire it was probably the best nominated film, but should have lost to a non nominated film.